A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Seijun Suzuki, “Tokyo Drifter / Tokyo nagaremono” (1966) A tale of larger-than-life characters grappling with their consciences and their loyalty to their superiors and the life…
British Films, French and French-language Films
Roman Polanski, “The Ghost Writer” (2009) Circumstances surrounding this film were peculiar enough in themselves: in travelling to the Zurich Film Festival as a special guest…
Cy Endfield, “Hell Drivers” (1957) An interesting and very much under-rated example of 1950s British noir / social realism, “Hell Drivers” is probably better known for…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, “Confession of Pain” (2006) Ain’t no bad time like Chinese New Year for a police officer to come home one night…
Alan Crosland Jr, “The Wild, Wild West (Season 2, Episode 13: Night of the Skulls)” (1966) A really surprising episode this turns out to be, with…
German and German-language Films, Spanish Films
?, “The Diadem” (1966) Wolfgang von Chmielewski, “MiniKillers” (1969) Two curious short films from Germany and Spain respectively, both feature the English actor Diana Rigg in…
Sidney Hayers, “The Avengers (Season 5, Episode 15: The Joker)” (1967) Oops! As Steed (Patrick Macnee) excitedly races down the staircase to greet Peel (Diana Rigg)…
French and French-language Films
Jean-Pierre Melville, “Le Samouraï” (1967) A beautiful and seductive film that spawned many imitators, of which some like John Woo’s “The Killer” also became cult flicks,…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Robert Connolly, “Underground: the Julian Assange Story” (2012) Fictionalised dramatisation of an episode in the early life of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as a teenage computer…
Middle Eastern Films, North American Films
Marcio E Gonçalves, “Rendering Lisa” (2010) Mehmet Can Koçak, “Perspective” (2011) Jesus Orellana, “Rosa” (2011) A homage to cyberpunk sci-fi writers William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and…